"Ugh." Dream grumbled under her breath. "This is the homework we have for the first day of school?" She flipped through the huge stack of worksheets she just printed out. "What, this isn't even related to history!"

After Dream thought she had finished the huge amount of homework assigned to her for the first day of school, she received an email from Mrs. Woods with more homework. All of it was due the next day. She groaned in frustration, wanting nothing more than to get fresh air.

Well, she couldn't exactly go outside...but she could open her window. That was something. She opened the curtains, feeling slightly uncomfortable since whoever lived across from her could also see directly into her room. But the room across from hers was dark, so she sighed, opening the window and breathing in the fresh air.

Then all of a sudden, the light in the other room turned on. Dream watched in horror as a dark haired boy entered the room and saw her. In a moment of panic, she jumped back and closed the curtain, not wanting to be seen.

"Wait...Dream?" a voice called from outside.

Dream frowned. How could the person know her name? She opened the curtain slowly, her heart pounding loudly. There were a few feet between the two windows, but it was close enough that she could see his face.

"Zac!" she called loudly.

He turned back around to face her. "Hey!" he said, smiling. Taking in her tired expression, he asked, "Still doing the homework Mrs. Woods assigned us?"

Dream pouted. "First day of school, and I'm drowning in homework already."

Zac laughed. "I still can't believe she sent us these weird math worksheets. Like, seriously? She's our history teacher!"

"I wonder if this math counts towards our history grade though."

Zac frowned, shrugging. "My older brother had Mrs. Woods too, and apparently it does."

Dream stared at him. "Your older brother had Mrs. Woods, and you didn't think to, I don't know, request to not be put in her class?"

"I don't know," Zac shrugged, looking slightly indifferent. "Homework isn't really my thing, so either way I'm not going to get a good grade. So why does it matter?"

"What about the detention?"

"I've got nothing better to do," Zac said. "At some point, I used to really be into basketball, but I was kicked off the team in middle school when I broke my arm. The arm recovered, but I was never able to play as well again."

"I'm really sorry about that," Dream said glumly. "Of course, it's not like you requested to be in Mrs. Woods' class, so you can't help it either. It still wasn't your choice."

Zac didn't respond.

"You don't mean--?" Dream said, her eyes wide.

"Can you keep a secret?" Zac asked, lowering his voice.

"I can barely hear you when you're speaking so softly, so yeah, probably."

"Between you and me, I specifically requested to be in Mrs. Woods' class," Zac said, slightly louder so Dream could hear him.

"What?! Why would you do that?"

"To investigate," Zac admitted.

"Investigate what?"

"It's a horrible thing," Zac said, beginning to speak in a softer voice again. "But I have a hunch that Mrs. Woods..."

"What?" Dream said.

"...Is a kidnapper..."

---

A/N 

Caught a little break in between debate rounds at my tournament today 💀So I decided I'd upload a chapter because some people have been asking 😛

Don't you all love cliffhangers? 😈

Anyways that's it for today! Don't forget to vote and comment... 

Also, people have been voting which is great 😃 but haven't really been leaving comments 😔So if you could drop a few that would be great!! 

Excuse my overuse of emojis in this author's note 🤣🤣🤣

💙, Stella Rose